What's the exact Mast Raising System procedure on Mac 26D?

[romandesign]

Manual is vague, says I have to connect the mast raising pole to halyard. Does it really mean that I will be pulling a mast up by halyard with its entire weight hanging on the block and halyard tied to the bottom cleat on the mast? The boat also has a roller furler, so it means the halyard is up always, as the gib doesn't go down, just winds on the furler. If I have to lower the jib every time just to have a halyard available - it won't make much sense... Or is it the main halyard that I need to use? But it's on the wrong side of the mast, isn't it? I'm confused.

So what are the exact steps of mast rising with MRS and roller furler on 1989 26D?

[Do+fus1]

You use the jib halyard and hold on to the roller furling while raising the mast, helps if you have another person. I bought the MRS that uses the winch, name escapes me (brain fart), that allows you to pause without lowering the mast to unhook stays etc. that are caught. Best investment I.ve made.

[Tomfoolery]

It depends on what type of furler you have. The FFII doesn't use the OEM jib halyard, as it has its own built in. Conventional foresail furlers, however, do use the halyard, so you would need to add either a spinnaker halyard, or just a static line. Or use the type MRS, which hooks to a bail on the mast at about 6 ft up.

[romandesign]

You use the jib halyard and hold on to the roller furling while raising the mast, helps if you have another person. I bought the MRS that uses the winch, name escapes me (brain fart), that allows you to pause without lowering the mast to unhook stays etc. that are caught. Best investment I.ve made.

Not sure I got that. How exactly do you do that?

We tried to raise the mast yesterday, and almost got it, but I could not get the forestay cable (that is inside the furler) to be straight enough to reach the hole, because furler tube was bending and its weight made it sag. The cable seems to be correct length, but I just couldn't make it work. I must be missing something. Also the furler reel might be too wide to be hooked to the base together with the MRS block system (but I never got to that part of the process). There is nothing that is holding the furler on its top end when the sail off, is there? Maybe I should somehow roll the sail on it while off the mast, and then raise it together with rolled sail, because then I could use the top ring on the furler that halyard is attached to on the top (and sail on the bottom), to pull the furler up?

[Do+fus1]

What roller furling do you have? You may have adjust the turnbuckle or adjust the back stay. Are you using the jib winch?

[romandesign]

Plastimo 406-T roller furler.

Yes, I was doing it with jib winch, but started just pulling manually. I'm afraid to over-tighten the winch though, it got pretty tight...

[Tomfoolery]

That furler is a conventional type, with a top bearing that slides on the foil, and is hauled up with the jib halyard to hoist the sail.

This video has a pretty good shot of the top bearing with the halyard attached as he lowers the sail starting at 14:41.

https://youtu.be/4Uj3wZaQS3Q?t=14m41s

You can use the jib halyard with the MRS, with the sail off the furler, or you can add another halyard, or add a static line up the mast, or use an M-style with the winch line directly to the mast at 6 ft up.

To make it easier to pin, undo the backstay. I'm assuming your rig has swept-back spreaders, so the side stays will prevent the mast from rotating forward beyond its normal position. The backstay has a lot of leverage, which is one of the reasons it's so light (1/8" 1x19 wire rope, probably), so it can easily make life difficult when trying to make the forestay pin. Best to shorten it and put a Johnson lever on it, or a turnbuckle. I just have a little turnbuckle, but a Johnson lever would be quicker, as you just flip it over center to snug it.

As to attaching the MRS to the deck, it sounds like you're trying to attach it to the stem fitting, where the forestay attaches. That's going to be tough. The X and M boats have an eye strap bolted to the deck, behind the forestay. If you don't have one, add one (well backed-up so the bolts don't pull through). Or use a cleat or two, which should leave clearance.

Mast down, ready to be raised, with furler/sail bungied to MRS for convenience:



Mast up with forestay pinned:



Can you post any pics of your attempts to raise the mast?

[romandesign]

Thanks for the advice and video link, very helpful. It was too hectic, as I was doing it for the first time ever, so I didn't take pictures. I do have a photo from when the previous owner was demoing it for me, but I see now that furling is not attached there. It does show the hardware that I have: there is no eye strap where 26X has it, but there is a cleat where the hatch is on the X. However manual says to connect MRS to the stem fitting. So I'm not sure if cleat is strong enough - it's some kind of strong plastic and it's old, beside the fact that it's too thick to connect the block. So I'm not sure there is any metal inside to hold it firm. MRS has a separate steel wire attached to the same point up the mast as the furling.

I think the main challenge is to keep the empty furling going in the straight line instead of sagging and pulling the wire inside down, thus shortening it and making it impossible to clip. When the sail is on it, it can likely be held by halyard, while sail is holding the sliding top bearing from the bottom. Right now there is no sail, but maybe I can just take a rope and tie it to the bottom of the bearing and tie the other end somewhere down. Then halyard at the top of the bearing could be tightened. Or maybe just tying the furling to the top of the MRS poll or its wire would be enough: I didn't know that's how you do it, so furling was dragging on the deck.



Any further advice appreciated.

[Tomfoolery]

Well, you have baby stays, so you're off to a great start; no worries about the mast going over sideways. Also looks like the boat was retrofitted with the two-piece hinge tabernacle; also good. And the style MRS, which is good, but could be better if you added the winch like the style, which would keep the pole out of the way. But you don't need to rework the whole thing just to bring the mast up. You've got all the parts there.

You said you have a separate length of wire rope to the bail the jib halyard attaches to. You could use line instead (won't scratch up your mast when not in use), but again, not a deal breaker. I'm just surprised the PO used wire instead of line for raising the mast.

Are you slackening or removing the backstay to raise the mast? You'll never get the forestay pinned if the backstay is preventing the MRS from loading the side stays the way it can. I just crank on mine until I can pull the forestay enough by hand, even with the sail on it, to make the pin. Don't worry about the winch; it's plenty strong enough for this.

And it helps to use the super long forestay pin with giant head from BWY, as it's easy to hold in one hand. Trying to get a 'normal' 1/4" pin into that hole while pulling on the forestay with your other hand ain't easy.

If the MRS pole is in the way of the furler drum, shorten the wire going to the bail.

Oh, and that cleat is your bow cleat. If you think it's too weak for the MRS, it's also too weak to be reliable as a bow cleat. Replace it with a similar black nylon, or better yet, a nice one made from SS or chromed bronze. This is what the boats have . . . http://www.westmarine.com/buy/perko--ch ... 64_004_504 but I prefer the more angular types, like this . . . http://www.westmarine.com/buy/attwood-- ... 23_001_506 mainly because the dock lines, especially braided ones, tend to slide too easily on the round types. I always use 3-strand on that type, as it's less susceptible to line slippage, unless the loop is put on it, of course, in which case it doesn't matter what type. Replacing the cleat also gives you a chance to make sure the backup material is adequate, and the bolts aren't in poor condition.

Edit: I could also be that your MRS pole is too long. It's normally 6 ft long. You might want to measure. If it's too long, you may be able to use the cleat instead, so none of that is in the way.

[romandesign]

Thanks a lot! Good points, I didn't know I could disconnect the backstay. I don't think you are right about the cleat strength: if the cleat is fully nylon it definitely is much stronger with sideways pull, because load of a typical cleated rope is spread between two points, and the metal bolts are the core inside those nylon points, so it is very structurally strong. However if pulling upwards, all of the force will apply to single point right in the center - so it's about twice the force of the side pull, plus there is no metal in the core of that part, so potentially old nylon can break at that point. I wouldn't trust the mast weight on it if I can avoid it. But it should be perfectly all right for the normal cleat use.

I believe the wire going to the MRS pole is the original equipment option, as it's exactly what is pictured in the original manual. I think originally it was the forestay. There is a plate that attaches to MRS pole on the end of this wire, and on the bottom end of the plate there are two holes - one is where the block system attaches to and another has a short wire with a loop that in the manual had another section with the turnbuckle, but on my boat the turnbuckle is inside the furling on its wire which is now the forestay. So MRS wire (folrmer forestay) will just hang losely once MRS pole is removed.

So based on your and other advice, I think I will

• Try to pull furling up the cable by attaching the halyard to top bearing and maybe attach a rope to this bearing's bottom end to keep the tension while there is no sail (and so I can pull it down to attach sail).
• Release the furling cable turnbuckle as mush as I can so the cable is longer
• Tie furling to end of MRS pole or its wire (depending where can I reach) to keep it aligned
• Pull up the mast and see if I can align it
• If I can't quite reach the hole - I will ease mast back a bit and release the backstay (I will have 2nd person helping me)
• Then connect the backstay if disconnected earlier
• Disconnect MRS
• Tighten the furling turnbuckle

Does it make sense?

[nprbill]

Attach a line, rope, to empty hold on the plate at the bottom end of old forstay. With the back stay disconnected, raise the mast, and the side stays will prevent it from falling forward. The mast almost vertical, tie the new rope, line, to the bow pulpit. Now you can move everything out of the way and pin the turnbuckle sticking out of the furling drum.

Most M26 owners have replaced the bottom part of the turnbuckle with a Johnson lever. This is like a pocket knife with the blade open, long and when closed is short. Thus, the Johnson lever allows you to install the pin with slack and when closed to tighten the furler forstay to the same tension each time.

[romandesign]

Thanks, that might work as well, and will solve the problem of cable in the way of the furling drum.